When did Utah stop being a representative democracy? How did unelected bureaucrats in the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources acquire the authority to impose hunting rules distasteful to the majority of citizens?
I'm talking about the sandhill crane hunt, under which hunters got permission this year, for the first time in three-quarters of a century, to destroy these wonderful birds. Despite widespread protests, petition drives, demonstrations and a movement to purchase sandhill hunting permits just to keep a few more cranes alive, the DWR pushed right ahead. It issued permits to allow hunting of 100 cranes.For those who haven't seen sandhills lumbering overhead on one of their formations, or seen these giant birds standing around in the marshes, there's a great picture of one in "Secrets in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks" by Lorraine Salem Tufts.
As Tufts' caption notes, the sandhill is one of the oldest sorts of birds. It's primitive, slow, and fascinating. It was brought back from the brink of extinction by a ban on hunting, but now it is being blasted out of the sky. Talk about regression.
What a challenge, to aim a high-powered rifle at something that spindly, that slow, big and unwary. Our nimrods should be proud of themselves.
Project: Spiral Sky Dancer, a non-profit group based in Salt Lake City, has been fighting the hunt for months.
The group's latest tactic is surely one of the most effective. The project did what the DWR failed to attempt, that is, it got a real reading of public opinion.
Project: Spiral Sky Dancer hired Dan Jones & Associates, the same pollsters who conduct Deseret News surveys, for a poll on the sandhill hunt.
The usual tactic whenever someone disagrees with a poll is to claim the question was slanted. Nobody can do that this time, because the question was simple, direct and unweighted: "In recent months there has been some controversy over whether or not sandhill cranes should be hunted in Utah. Do you favor or oppose having a sandhill crane hunt in Utah?"
The results are that only 18 percent favor the hunt. Those opposing amount to 52 percent. Folks who have not heard of the hunt amount to a shocking 27 percent.
Of Utahns who know about the sandhills, 26 percent favor the hunt, while 74 percent are against. The margin against the hunt is nearly three to one.
On Oct. 20, Jim Platte, the project's spark plug, wrote to Tim Provan, director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources: "As custodian of Utah's wildlife, including, prominently, the sandhill cranes...you will be interested in the results of a public opinion poll the project did in cooperation with Dan Jones & Associates.
"At this time we ask the division to halt its efforts to establish a sandhill crane hunt in Utah. We offer to work with you in establishing a Utah wildlife fund, part of which would be used to resolve, through compensation, the crane depredation problems being experienced by some Utah farmers."
Next week, I'll tell you whether the division responds reasonably to public opinion.
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Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, has introduced a bill that would in affect amend the Wilderness Act of 1964 by specifying that wheelchairs are allowed in wilderness areas. It's not as though people in wheelchairs are being turned away from wilderness: the agencies have regulations to allow them there.
From a practical standpoint, wheelchair-bound Americans can't go trekking across the rugged terrain of most wilderness areas anyway. The wilderness country I've traversed is rocky, steep, with numerous gullies, sandy spots, cliffs. Whether it's protected or not, nobody will take a wheelchair there.
Everybody has limitations. My knees start to give out on long and difficult hikes. My shoulders dislocate easily - a great advantage when I answered the call of the draft in 1969, but not so good for climbing, as I discovered when one popped out of socket when I was high in a side canyon above Buckhorn Draw.
So I probably won't risk climbing Mount Timpanogos. I know I'll never look out from the top of the world at Denali or hike the Appalachian Trail. It's no great burden and I can live with that, because there are plenty of other places I can visit.
Of course, people in wheelchairs are much more severely limited. Not only won't they do any of these things, but they also won't be able to get into millions of acres of rough backcountry. With or without any legislation Hansen wants to push through, that's just the way it is.
We all have to live with our limitations, the society as well as the individual.